Home > Work > The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's
1 " What would happen if the autism gene was eliminated from the gene pool?You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and socializing and not getting anything done. "
― Temple Grandin , The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's
2 " Nature is cruel but we don't have to be "
3 " You simply cannot tell other people they are stupid, even if they really are stupid. "
4 " One of the problems in understanding sensory issues is that sensory sensitivities are very variable, among individuals and within the same individual. A person can be hyper-sensitive in one area (like hearing) and hypo-sensitive in another (like touch). One "
5 " Complicating matters even further, on a day-to-day basis, in the same individual, the sensory sensitivities can change, especially when the person is tired or stressed. These "
6 " Eye contact is still difficult for me in noisy rooms because it interferes with hearing. It’s like my brain’s wiring lets only one sense function or the other, but sometimes not both at the same time. In noisy rooms, I have to concentrate on hearing. Some "
7 " At the age of three, Tito Mukhopadhyay was diagnosed with severe autism, but his mother, Soma, refused to accept the conventional wisdom of the time that her son would be unable to interact with the outside world. She read to him, taught him to write in English, and challenged him to write his own stories. "
8 " Every person with autism is unique, with a different profile of strengths and challenges. "
9 " different way of thinking and learning. People with autism are people first. "
10 " The best thing a parent of a newly diagnosed child can do is to watch their child without preconceived notions and judgements and learn how the child functions, acts, and reacts to his or her world. "
11 " Autistic thinking is always detailed and specific. Teachers and parents need to help both children and adults with autism take all the little details they have in their head and put them into categories to form concepts and promote generalization. "
12 " To summarize this chapter, parents and teachers need to “stretch” individuals on the autism spectrum. They need to be stretched just outside their comfort zone for them to develop. "
13 " Many of these individuals agree that sensory issues are the primary challenge of autism in their daily lives. There "
14 " All people want to feel their efforts matter, and individuals with ASD are no different. "
15 " There is often too much emphasis in the world of autism on the deficits of these children and not enough emphasis on developing the special talents that many of them possess. "
16 " Flexible thinking is a highly important ability that is often—to the detriment of the child—omitted as a teachable skill on a child’s IEP. It impacts a child in all environments, both now and in the future: school, home, relationships, employment, recreation. "
17 " we generally focus more on what they can’t do, and tend to overlook the positive traits many of these individuals possess. "
18 " Geeks, nerds, and eccentrics have always been in the world; what has changed is the world itself and our expectations of others within it. "
19 " For me and other people on the autism spectrum, sensory experiences that have little or no effect on neurotypical people can be severe life stressors for us. Loud noises hurt my ears like a dentist’s drill hitting a nerve. For "
20 " that you cannot turn a non-social animal into a social one. Your focus should be teaching people with autism/AS to adapt to the social world around them, while still retaining the essence of who they are, including their autism/AS. Learning social survival skills is important, but I cannot be something I am not. Social "
